October 5 is the Memorial of Blessed Francis Seelos, C.Ss.R. (1819-1867)

FRANCIS XAVIER SEELOS WAS BORN IN FUSSEN, Bavaria, on January 11, 1819. He studied philosophy at the University of Munich and began theology as a seminarian for the diocesan clergy. After visiting the Redemptorists in Allotting, where he heard of their missionary work in North America, he decided to join them. With their approval, he set off for the United States in 1843 where he made his novitiate. He made his profession in Baltimore in May 1844 and was ordained priest there in December. His first assignment was to St. Philomena’s in Pittsburgh where he served for six years as assistant pastor with (Saint) John Neumann as pastor and superior of the community. He then served as superior of the community for three more years. During this time he was also the novice master. In 1854, he was appointed pastor of St. Alphonsus in Baltimore, and in 1857 pastor of Ss. Peter and Paul in Cumberland as well as prefect of students there and in 1862 in Annapolis, Maryland.

Replaced as prefect of students, he preached missions in German and English throughout the Northeast and Midwest United States. Father Seelos was always an active and highly successful missioner – particularly devoted to the confessional – and was revered as an exceptional confessor and spiritual director. After a year as assistant pastor in St. Mary’s in Detroit, in 1866 he was assigned to the parish of the Assumption in New Orleans, Louisiana as pastor. There he made a great effort to care for the poor, sick, and neglected. While caring for victims of yellow fever, he contracted the disease himself. Only a year after being assigned, he died in New Orleans on October 4, 1867. Francis Seelos was beatified in 2000.

To read more about Blessed Seelos, please click here.

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September 26 is the memorial of Blessed Kaspar Stanggassinger, Redemptorist priest (1871 – 1899)

Kaspar entered the Congregation with the intention of preaching the Gospel to the most abandoned. Instead, his superiors appointed him to form future missionaries. In addition to teaching he always gave pastoral assistance at churches in neighboring villages, especially by preaching. He was deeply devoted to the Eucharist, and in his preaching he invited all to have recourse to the Blessed Sacrament in times of need and anxiety. In 1899, he was 28 when he arrived at the seminary in Gars, Bavaria. He preached the opening retreat of the year to the students, but he soon had a fatal case of peritonitis. Kaspar used to say, "The saints have a special intuition. For me, who am not a saint, what is important are the simple eternal truths: the Incarnation, the Redemption and the Holy Eucharist." He was declared Blessed by John Paul II on April 24, 1988.

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Blessed Maria Sarnelli, Redemptorist priest

Gennaro Sarnelli was born in Naples on September 12, 1702. Son of the Baron of Ciorani, he had a solid cultural and spiritual formation. Dedicating himself to the study of jurisprudence, he gained a doctorate in civil and canon law at the age of twenty. Caring for the sick in the Hospital for the Incurables, he felt the call to the priesthood. During this time he also came to know Alphonsus Maria de Liguori, who was his first biographer. Ordained a priest in 1732, he dedicated himself especially to the catechesis of young boys and to the rehabilitation of girls at risk of becoming prostitutes. In June of the following year he entered the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer, founded by Alphonsus Maria de Liguori on the ninth of November, 1732. He dedicated himself to the preaching of the Word of God to those who were most destitute of spiritual help.

For reasons of health, in 1736, he returned to Naples, where, while continuing the missionary activity in the Redemptorist Congregation, he took up again his previous pastoral and charitable activities, especially among the sick, the old, those in prison and the young boys forced to work as dock-laborers. He also initiated a fervent movement against the spread of prostitution.

A prodigious writer, he published more than thirty books on a wide range of subjects: socio-juridical studies, moral issues, mysticism, pedagogy, pastoral practice, mariology and ascetical theology.

In 1741 he organized and took part in the great mission among the spiritually abandoned areas in the outskirts of Naples. Spent by his burning zeal, he died in Naples on June 30, 1744, at the age of forty-two. John Paul II beatified him on May 12, 1996.

Prayer written by Fr. Kevin Murray, C.Ss.R. for Living Redemptorist Spirituality

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June 28 is the memorial for Blessed Nicholas Charnetsky and Companions, the Redemptorist Martyrs of the Ukranine

THE FOUR REDEMPTORIST MARTYRS OF THE UKRAINE are Bishop Nicholas Charnetsky (1884-1959), Bishop Vasyl Velychkovsky (1903-1973), Father Zenon Kovalyk (1903-1941) and Father Ivan Ziatyk (1899-1952).

Nicholas Charnetsky was born in Semakivci in Halychyna, Western Ukraine in 1884. He did his theological studies in Rome and was ordained as a diocesan priest in 1909. After obtaining his doctorate in theology he was spiritual director and professor of theology at the major seminary in Stanislaviv. He entered the Redemptorist novitiate in Zboisk in 1919 and was professed in 1920. During his early years he was assigned to teach in the minor seminary and subsequently to the giving of popular missions. He was ordained bishop in 1931 and appointed the Apostolic Visitor to the Ukrainian Catholics of Volyn. From 1931 to 1939 he ministered to the people of Volyn, Polisia, Pidliasia, and Belorussia. During World War II he was in Lviv, ministering pastorally and teaching at the theological academy. From 1945 to 1956, he was imprisoned in about thirty Soviet labor camps and prisons. Following his release in 1956, he returned to Lviv and acted as bishop of the suppressed Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in Ukraine. He died in 1959.

Vasyl (Basil) Velychkovsky was born in Stanislaviv, Western Ukraine in 1903. He studied at the Major Seminary in Lviv and was ordained a deacon in 1923. He entered the Redemptorists as a deacon, professed vows in 1925, and was ordained a priest shortly after. After teaching at the minor seminary in Zboisk, Vasyl worked as a missionary for the next twenty years in rural Ukraine. He was arrested in 1945 and was condemned to death, but the death sentence was commuted to ten year’s imprisonment. He was released in 1955. He was consecrated bishop by Metropolitan Slipyj in a hotel room in Moscow in 1963. He became the head of the Ukrainian Catholic Church in Ukraine. Arrested once more in 1969, he spent three years in prison. In the Spring of 1972, near death, he was exiled from Ukraine. He died in Winnipeg, Canada, in 1973. It is believed that his death was caused by a slow-acting poison administered prior to his release from prison.

Zenon Kovalyk was born in 1903 in Ivachiv Horishniy near Ternopil in 1903. He joined the Redemptorists and professed vows in 1926. He studied philosophy and theology in Belgium and was ordained in 1932. He went with Bishop Charnetsky to Volyn as a parish missionary and subsequently to Stanislaviv where he also conducted missions. Zenon was a fearless preacher of God’s Word and love of the Mother of God. He was arrested by the Soviets in 1940. While in prison he continued his pastoral ministry among the prisoners. When the Soviet prisons were opened on the arrival of the invading German army, Father Zenon’s body was found crucified to a wall of the prison of Zamartynivska in 1941.

Ivan Ziatyk was born in 1899 in Odrekhova, southwest of Sanok (now part of Poland). He entered the Ukrai­nian Catholic Seminary in Peremyshl in 1919 and was ordained in 1923. He became prefect of the seminarians and taught theology and catechetics at the seminary. He joined the Redemptorists in 1935, professing vows in 1936. He taught Scripture and dogmatic theology at the Redemptorist seminary in Holosko (near Lviv). Subsequent assignments were to the monastery in Ternopil as well as to the minor seminary in Zboisk (near Lviv) where he was superior of the community. The difficult situation in which the Ukrainian Catholic Church found itself (with all its bishops arrested and with the Belgian Provincial expelled), resulted in Father Ivan holding the posts of the Provincial of the Redemptorists and the Vicar General of the Ukrainian Catholic Church. He was arrested in 1950, condemned to ten years imprisonment but died of a savage beating in 1952.

The four Redemptorists were among twenty-five Ukrainian martyrs beatified during the papal visit to Lviv in 2001.

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St. Alphonsus Liguori, founder of the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer, the Redemptorists

Our founder was a brilliant, articulate, pragmatic preacher; he knew how to reach ordinary people who had limited education and very real needs. They followed this gifted preacher from church to church and town to town to hear him preach the message of hope in Christ for all people.

Three great images, basic to the Christian faith, formed the heart of Alphonsus’ preaching and teaching - Jesus an infant in the crib, Jesus crucified on the cross, and Jesus vibrantly alive and filled with love for all in the Eucharist. To this he added the image of Mary, the Mother of the Redeemer. When other theologians were opposed to the devotion of Mary, Alphonsus invoked her: "Hail Holy Queen, Mother of Mercy, our life, our sweetness, and our hope."

These images illustrate the cornerstone of Alphonsian spirituality. "Ours is an Incarnational, very human and holistic spirituality," explains Fr. Patrick Woods, C.Ss.R. "God is present - through the birth of Jesus, his death on the cross, and his presence in the Blessed Sacrament. We relate our preaching today to all who are suffering in the world, whether that be from famine, poverty, terrible situations of war, or any other dehumanizing cause. This is where Christ is dying now. He is there with them in their suffering and plentiful grace which gives hope for the future."

Saint John Neumann was not an impressive figure at first glance. He was short and soft spoken and often criticized for not being stern enough... Read More

Redemptorists preach Alphonsus’ message of the God of merciful love and the importance of prayer: "Pray and you will be saved. Do not pray and you will be lost."

The Redemptorists’ experience of working with alienated and marginalized persons enters deeply into their prayer lives; they carry all those with whom they work into their personal prayer. Here their hearts are most in company with Jesus’ own desires, as they love and hold them up in hope.

"Prayer and meditation in the Alphonsian tradition is something we live today," says Fr. Woods. "In thinking about God, thinking about the Passion, we carry God’s love forward into all our work."

"We keep praying," Fr. Carl Hoegerl, C.Ss.R., echoes. "We keep doing the Lord’s work and look toward what is next. We tap into the charism of our founder. His mission, his energy, his model: those are our roots."

Pope John Paul II described Alphonsus as "a close friend of the people…a missionary who went in search of the most abandoned souls…a founder who wanted a group which would make a radical option in favor of the lowly…a Bishop whose house was open to all…a writer who focused on what would be of benefit to people…"

Christ’s claim on the heart of Alphonsus was absolute and irresistible. As a young priest he worked himself to the point of exhaustion as a missionary in the Italian countryside. Caring for the poor, wherever his journey took him, was the hallmark of his calling.

Between 1726 when he was ordained and 1787 when he died, he spent all of himself in service to the poor, while at the same time expanding the knowledge of others called to serve God and humanity.

Alphonsus’ reputation as a brilliant thinker devoted to the renewal of moral theology was pivotal at a time when many around him preached a religion of fear and anguish. It was Alphonsus who preached the redeeming love of God. He believed that law and the threat of punishment was not foremost in God’s plan. In God the Creator, love and freedom coincide. The individual was called to love God out of an overwhelming sense of gratitude for what God had done for him in Christ. It was not fear but love that was to characterize the Christian way of life.

Those who in this life love God above all else know that their beloved is ever present with them.

In 1732, Alphonsus, an ordained Diocesan priest living in Naples, realized he could no longer be comfortable in his role of popular preacher living apart from the poor and so leaving his family and his dearest friends, he set out to dedicate himself completely to the service of the poor and most abandoned. He sought others who were called as he was, and adopted a style of ministry to "mission among the people." During a mission a band of Redemptorist priests and brothers would come to an area to preach and conduct religious activities. They saturated the people with the sense of God. They lived in community in houses in the countryside so that these mission revivals could be regularly repeated, giving the poor assurances they would not be abandoned by Alphonsus and his brothers.

Alphonsus’ art was influenced by what he saw around him. When he was twenty-three years old he painted his own "Christ on the Cross." His painting depicted the death of Love itself. Around that same time he also painted a picture of the Madonna as a woman of peaceful, gentle features- a woman who won his heart. Surrounded by twelve stars she is the portrait of divine beauty enfleshed. His art, like his music was a way to lead the men and women of his day, rich and poor, to know the surpassing riches of the knowledge and love of Jesus Christ and his mother Mary.

Alphonsus wrote for the people. Many turned to his spiritual writing, for he wrote in a way that was understandable to them and to anyone with a basic education. On winter evenings in his time, the people in the villages often gathered around a fire in someone's home. At these times someone read stories about the Gospels or the lives of the saints, things that nourished their faith and helped them to pray. Alphonsus’ works were frequent choices.

In his writings for other religious, Alphonsus emphasized practical approaches to reach those who were neglected or alienated from the Church. On a scientific level, he gave new life and direction to moral theology. He found many prominent moral theologians of his time either too rigid or too lax and ultimately wrote his most influential work, Moral Theology, to correct what he saw as errors that could hurt people struggling to live good and moral lives.

In the course of his long life, Alphonsus authored over one hundred books, including his most beloved Visits to the Blessed Sacrament, The Practice of the Love of Jesus Christ, and The Glories of Mary.

Saint Alphonsus would eventually be given the title "Doctor of Prayer" by the Catholic Church. His book Prayer, the Great Means of Salvation sets out his teaching on the subject. "Having observed," Alphonsus writes, "that so many passages of both the Old and New Testaments assert the absolute necessity of prayer, I have made it a rule to introduce into all our missions... a sermon on prayer; and I say, and repeat, and will keep on saying as long as I live, that our whole salvation depends on prayer... For if you pray, your salvation will be secure."

Just as a fire is kindled by the wood cast into it, so love is enkindled by acts of love.

Like many of his countrymen, Alphonsus was a man of passion and volatility. He found his balance and security in his devotion to the Blessed Mother. His appeals to Mary were impassioned, like those of a distressed child calling for his or her mother. He was confident that Mary would hear his prayers, and she was a great spiritual wellspring of his life. He never wrote a single letter, and his personal correspondence ran into the tens of thousands, without beginning or ending it with these words: "Long live Jesus and Mary." He strongly encouraged his fellow Redemptorists and others to pray the rosary every day and to visit Marian shrines so as to grow in their love for the mother of God. For him she was a constant helper and guide in all matters concerning his congregation.

Although he was sickly for much of his life, the final years of Alphonsus were marked by very serious and debilitating physical ailments, especially arthritis, causing him great pain. He was confined to a wheelchair. His head was bent forward so deeply that it forged a hole into his chest. And he was plagued with spiritual afflictions as well, scrupulously fearing he hadn't done enough to serve the God he loved so much. To help him through these times his confreres gathered with him to pray. They always included the Litany of Our Lady, usually followed by the daily rosary. They read to him from his own writings about the glory of Mary and how as heaven's queen, she welcomed all her true and faithful servants at the hour of their death.

Early in the evening on July 31, 1787, Alphonsus made one final request. "Give me my lady," he whispered. They placed a picture of Mary in his hands. He spent the night in prayer with the Blessed Mother. The next day at the stroke of the noon Angelus, Alphonsus died at the age of ninety-one.